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Saturday, October 28, 2017

Diddy Kong Angel Drop In Depth Tutorial

The Angel Drop, or sometimes called the "Banana Slamma," is a ledge trapping technique that Diddy Kong can do to confirm a down air on opponents jumping from the ledge. This technique is powerful, as Diddy's down air is the 5th strongest in the game, and this is one of the few ways for Diddy to get a kill at under 100%.

Input

The input is simple;
starting from the very edge of the stage, press jump and immediately press z to
drop the banana and then immediately follow that with down on the c stick for
the down air. Although it is possible to hit without going off stage, I find it
easier to hit the opponent if you drift forward as you start the down air.
Timing the Angel Drop is very strict - you will only be able to consistently
hit it against players that buffer their jump from the ledge. I suggest
practicing the input against a friend who is spamming jump from the ledge with
a fat character first. This will make it easier and will help you learn the
timing and spacing.

Conditioning with Angel Drop

Randomly spamming
Angel Drops will rarely result in a successful kill. To get the most out of
this set up, you must use the Angel Drop as a tool to condition the opponent. I
do this in two different ways: I make my opponent either want to jump, or make
them afraid to jump.

By running up to the
ledge as your opponent grabs it and holding shield, you can bait out and hard
punish any of the basic get up options. Cover jump with Angel drop, and cover
roll, get up attack, and neutral get up by throwing the banana and following up
on the trip. This set up is strong because your position does not give away
which ledge option you are looking for. I like to go for an Angel Drop early in
the game so that my opponent fears jumping. By doing this, later in the set
when I'm shielding by the ledge, my opponent will be far more likely to roll,
and I will punish that with a banana into up smash to take the stock. In this
way you are using the Angel Drop to force a bad option later in the set.

The other way I use
Angel Drop is the exact opposite in which I try to force my opponent to jump.
Instead of using Angel Drops early in the set, I save them for later and try to
cover neutral get ups, rolls, and get up attacks while leaving the jump option
open. Then once I get my opponent on their second stock, I will switch it up on
them and try to end the game with an Angel Drop. If your opponent still won't
jump, you can start using ledge trumps as well to force them to buffer an
option off the ledge.

Fake Angel Drops

You can fake an
Angel Drop in many different ways to cover other ledge get up options. Instead
of going for the spike after Z dropping the banana, you can let the banana sit
on the floor to cover the neutral get up and then follow up with a charged
forward Smash to get kills around 100%. Note that your banana cannot be on its
second throw for this to work, otherwise it will disappear when it hits the
ground. If your opponent rolls from the ledge, turn around upon landing from
your short hop and follow their roll to either grab and throw them offstage or
down tilt them into a kill confirm. In the event that you did end up committing
to the spike and miss, if your opponent did a neutral get up you can still
punish them with a double jump back air.

Even if the Angel
Drop does not completely connect and you end up off stage, don't panic. If they
jumped late, it's possible the banana will still hit them and they will be put
off stage as well and force them to recover back to the ledge. If they went for
get up attack or roll, they usually will be stuck in that animation long enough
for you to grab the ledge for free. Another possibility is if they instead go
for a neutral get up, immediately after missing the spike you can double jump
back air to punish their trip on the banana. Diddy Kong can also fake an Angel
Drop to cover neutral get up with a charged forward Smash that will kill at
relatively early percents.

Avoiding an Angel Drop

Because of how
strict the timing is on an Angel Drop, it is extremely difficult for Diddy to
land it unless you buffer your jump from the ledge. When Diddy is holding
banana, you should never buffer your ledge option because even if he does ledge
trump you, he has no follow ups. Throwing the banana sends it at the wrong
angle, and z drop into an aerial is too slow. The simple solution to never get
hit by an Angel drop is to just wait on the ledge for half a second before
jumping if Diddy is holding a banana. Alternatively, dropping back from the
ledge and coming up with a rising aerial can often beat Angel Drop. However, if
Diddy is expecting this, he can sit in shield and punish the up air with a
simple banana combo.

I am Benjamin "JJROCKETS" Rowe, a Smash Ultimate Diddy Kong main from Chicago, IL. Currently I live in Daejeon, Korea where I work as an elementary school English teacher. In Brawl and Smash 4, I was known as one of the top Diddy Kong players, and I am looking to continue this success in Ultimate. On my website I will be posting about my travels in Asia, my Smash Ultimate tournament experiences, guides on how to improve at Smash, and random thoughts about life. Besides blog style posts, I also have my tournament schedule with my upcoming events listed, and a compilation of my tournament results in Ultimate.